This invention relates to a cutting machine for clearing overgrowth from road side drainage ditches and more specifically to a power ditch router for clearing this overgrowth.
A major problem with maintaining rural roads, is maintenance of the drainage ditch along side the road. Frequently these ditches will become overgrown with grass, weeds, small bushes and the like such that the flow of drainage water is restricted. No easy means of clearing out this overgrowth currently exists. Mowers typically require a flat surface along the entire width of the mower for cutting overgrowth. This prevents a mower from being used effectively at the bottom of a drainage ditch. Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a power ditch router for cleaning the overgrowth in the bottom of a road side drainage ditch.
The power ditch router of this invention includes a power shaft having a number of horizontally spaced discs attached to the shaft for rotation therewith. At the outer edges of these discs are a number of cutting teeth for cutting the overgrowth. The discs are of progressively larger diameter with the smallest diameter discs at each end and the largest diameter disc in the middle. This allows the router to reach the bottom V-shaped portion of a drainage ditch without cutting into the side walls of the ditch. The router can be mounted to a conventional tractor and hydraulically driven from the tractor hydraulic system or it can be mechanically driven from the tractor power-take-off. The router can be positioned relative to the ditch such that the overgrowth is cut short, yet the root system remains so that the soil will not be eroded by the drainage water. The router can also be positioned to remove the top layer of soil and the plant roots thereby leaving no growth. The router can be operated at an oblique angle relative to the ditch such that the removed overgrowth can be deposited along the side of the ditch as opposed to in the bottom of the ditch.
Alternatively, the router can be operated perpendicularly to the ditch such that parallel rows of grass between the discs will remain intact in the ditch. The router can also be moved transversely across the ditch. This motion is useful in removing small saplings where more than one pass by the router is necessary to completely remove the tree.
Further objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following description and the appended claims when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.